In a major provocation from Pakistan after Operation Sindoor, a soldier was killed in action near the Line of Control after terrorists backed by the Pakistan Army intruded into Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri sector, official sources said.
According to sources in the Army, infiltrators tried to enter India late on August 12. This was different from a routine infiltration attempt, as the intruders received firing support from the Pakistan Army. Such an infiltration attempt is typically carried out with the support of Pakistan’s Border Action Teams, the dirty tricks department of the Pakistan Army.
As Indian soldiers retaliated to the infiltration attempt, a gunfight broke out and a soldier succumbed to his injuries. The infiltration attempt was foiled, but the intruders took advantage of the bad weather and managed to escape. An official Army statement on the incident is awaited.
This is the first major provocation by Pakistan after the uneasy calm in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, India’s counterstrike to the Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 innocents dead. Following India’s targeted airstrikes in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan’s drone attacks along India’s western border, the two sides had agreed on a ceasefire after Islamabad reached out to New Delhi.
The past couple of months have seen Pakistani leaders make reckless public statements. Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir recently made headlines for his threats to nuke India. Speaking in the US, Munir reportedly threatened to take down “half the world” if Pakistan faced an existential threat in a future war with India.
India responded that “nuclear sabre-rattling” is Pakistan’s “stock-in-trade”, and expressed regret that such remarks were made from the soil of a friendly third country.
“The international community can draw its own conclusions on the irresponsibility inherent in such remarks, which also reinforces the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in a state where the military is hand-in-glove with terrorist groups,” the government said.
“India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and will continue to take all necessary steps to safeguard its national security,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
